Is your local airport the nation’s favourite?

Being in an airport can be an exciting time for any jetsetter, as many consider it the start of their holiday, but some of the nation’s airports are better than others.

A new survey by compensation firm, Flightdelays.co.uk, has revealed that Newcastle Airport was the country’s favourite gateway, with respondents claiming that it had the best staff and best facilities.

Each of the UK’s 30 airports was ranked by their facilities, shops and restaurants, speed of service, staff, accessibility and cleanliness, with Newcastle coming out top overall.

Geordie’s will be happy to hear that their home airport received an average score of at least 3.5 out of 5 (5 being excellent), across all categories highlighted in the survey, with 29% of visitors stating that it was their favourite.

The country’s third most visited airport, Manchester, had to settle with second best with 27% of visitors voting in its favour. The North-West airport was followed by Birmingham and Bristol airport with both receiving 23% of the votes.

London Airports were found to be particularly unpopular amongst respondents, with Luton Airport only receiving 17% of the votes. To make matters worse, the airport received such a low number of votes despite having a whopping 14.6 million customers last year.

The other airports to make the list of the nation’s least popular were Exeter (12%) Gatwick (11%) and Stansted (11%) respectively.

Some airports in fact, don’t match the standards of some holidaymakers, with half claiming that they would be willing to travel to avoid an airport they don’t like, with 15% even stating that they were prepared to travel 50 miles to do so!

Despite not ranking amongst the country’s favourites, Isle of Man Airport received the highest average score in any category, ranking 4.3 out of 5 for their speedy service.

Commenting on their survey findings, Steve Phillips of Flightdelays.co.uk, said: “It’s surprising to see that some of the airports people use more frequently in this country, are actually disliked the most. It may be that the larger airports struggle to cope with more and more demand.

“Our research shows that our regional airports are ranked highly by the public and that’s great as airports can be really stressful places.

“The last thing you want, when you’ve been up for hours packing and dragging your kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, is to battle a massive queue, only to be greeted with a face like thunder when you reach the check-in.”